Muscle Physiology Lab

Introducing another one of our dedicated undergraduate lab members- Karan Srikrishna! Karan is an international student from Dubai and a senior Biology major. He joined the Muscle Physiology Lab in the summer of 2022 and currently works on research using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) to non-invasively measure resting deoxymyoglobin in the vastus lateralis muscle to quantify the resting intracellular oxygen tension (PO2). Karan will be pursuing his master's degree in Kinesiology when he graduates. We are very glad to have Karan in the lab with us!

Introducing one of our undergraduate lab members, Samantha!

"Hi! My name is Samantha Broglio, I am a junior Kinesiology major at UMass Amherst with the hopes of becoming a Physician's Assistant. I currently am one of the captains of the Women's club rugby team at UMass and work as an EMT outside of Boston when school is not in session. I joined Dr. Kents Lab at the beginning of my sophomore year and have been exploring muscle glycogen's roles and changes during exercise, fatigue, and aging. I hope to continue this research in the upcoming year and explore this topic deeper!"

Thank you, Samantha, for all the hard work you have contributed to the Muscle Physiology Lab's mission!

Introducing Dr. Jane Kent!

Dr. Kent is the Director of the Muscle Physiology Lab and the Kinesiology Department Chair at UMass Amherst. She received her B.A. and M.A. from California State University, Long Beach and her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Dr. Kent specializes in skeletal muscle, fatigue, bioenergetics, aging, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Her primary interest is in the area of human skeletal muscle function and fatigue. In particular, her work examines the mechanisms of fatigue, and how these vary depending upon age, gender, chronic health status, and habitual physical activity level. A related interest is an examination of the influence that fatigue has on functional capacity. She takes a state-of-the-art, integrated approach to understanding human muscle function from the cell to the organism. The main problem she is working on now is how to minimize the loss of mobility and health that occur in old age.